Comments on: Fairy Tales, Books and Storytelling With The Little Ones

By: Myrnie

Myrnie — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:34:02 +0000

Carrie-

I’m coming back to this today, and realized I never subscribed to the replies, and never saw your thoughtful entry- thank you. You’ve exactly hit the nail on the head for our goals for this year- she is very orderly, but her gross motor skills and imaginative play have loads of room to grow. She’s just recently mastered her tricycle, we’ll be moving to a training wheel bike (or a balance bike) soon. She’s very interested in our garden, and we talk about that and poke around looking for flowers and fruits. (BUT, all that said, we’ve really enjoyed Cynthia Rylant’s books, especially the ones about Mr. Putter and Tabby. They’re both old, they’re both slow, they both like jazz, and they get into little scrapes together and are utterly charming.)

By: Waldorf In The Home With The Five-Year-Old « The Parenting Passageway

Waldorf In The Home With The Five-Year-Old « The Parenting Passageway — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 19:30:30 +0000

[...] See here for a list of recommended fairy tales by age, but pick one that that resonates with you: http://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/03/20/fairy-tales-books-and-storytelling-with-the-little-ones… and here: [...]

By: Alissa

Alissa — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:27:09 +0000

Thanks so much for this, Carrie. I’m also in the midst of reading Simplicity Parenting, so this is all really resonating for me. I’ve already cleared out about 95% of the kids’ books and put them away, with the intention of just cycling them out once a month or so. I like the idea even better of putting them in a high place and only bringing them down for a special reading time. I did the same with the baby’s room… only left about 6 books in there. Which is rather silly, now that I think about it. 1)We co-sleep, so he doesn’t actually ever go in that room. Only his clothes are stored in there. Even if he did, he’d never see the books. And 2)We don’t read to the baby. Ever. We read to our first, but not so much to our 2nd, and not at all to the 3rd. So now I’m really feeling confident that I can just go ahead and get rid of those books. It’s funny how much we’re encouraged to read to our babies. When we left the hospital with each baby, we were given a bag full of books and encouraged to start reading to them right away. Now I realize how silly that is. Why do I need a picture book full of objects to teach my baby what each object is, when they could simply experience those objects in real life? Okay, I’m off to put all of those baby books in the donation bag.
Alissa

By: Carrie

Carrie — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:57:05 +0000

Myrnie, I will write another post on this soon, there are quite a few back posts on this. Remember, even the first and second grade level the children in MOST educational models are expected to be reading Froad and Toad and the like, so if your child is WAY ahead it is hard to find things for them to read that don’t get into mature themes. That was where we were, way ahead of all of that…way, way ahead. I would suggest that until your daughter is seven, really think about other areas in which she needs development. Can she ride a bike with training wheels? A bike without training wheels? Can she swim independently? Do the monkey bars? Can she cook and bake and garden adn sing?
How about ordering things? Things that contribute to numeral literacy…I would say moving ahead on math is actually better than moving ahead in reading!
A few thoughts, Blessings,
Carrie

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:47:35 +0000

It took me a long time to wrap my head around the idea that less is more when it comes to books, but now I completely get it. Living deeply into one fabulous book is so much better than browsing through many. I figured it out by my 2nd daughter I wrote about the power of storytelling on my blog–It’s the section called “stories” on this page: http://maymomvt.blogspot.com/2010/03/mitten-strings-posts.html

By: Myrnie

Myrnie — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:52:42 +0000

Thank you for the input on how to help early readers- my 4 1/2 year old has taught herself how to read, and I’m a little unsure how to proceed but am letting her lead the way. Thus far she’s vastly content to read the beautiful picture books we’ve always enjoyed together, but I know she’ll want more soon enough.

By: Jennifer Tan

Jennifer Tan — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:48:39 +0000

What a great reminder to us about the importance of repeating the same story and spending quality time with each one, especially with younger children. I have been enjoying sharing fairy tales to the kids this year using my own words instead of reading from a book. Quite a challenge, but it’s getting easier! Thank you for such a wonderful post.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:09:23 +0000

tough one for us…we are a book house to be sure. My husband and I both have MA in English Literature and teach college along with our full time jobs.

my MIL is a graphic artist and painter who loves childrens’ books.

We have many…and Emerson has grown up looking at them while we read.

I recently started story telling, and I’m suprised to say, it is goign really well. by well, I mean that I’m remember details and she is interested. My nanny is excellent at it.

also, we sing constantly. My mother got emerson a subscription to baby bug. for the past 2 years, I’ve been making up melodies to the little rhymes and stories…even though the picture book itself is not ideal in the strict waldorf sense…it’s sort of the road we’ve gone down.

Emerson has never seen TV (we moved our down to our finished basement), so I feel the picture books are for me too LOL